


Bloody Rose

by minazukihatta



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, And is a grimm, Body Horror, Body Modification, Brainwashing, Casual Attitudes to Death, Character Death, F/M, Grimmification, That AU where Oscar works for Salem, Torture, Violence, slight gore
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-26
Updated: 2019-03-11
Packaged: 2019-11-05 23:23:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17928338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minazukihatta/pseuds/minazukihatta
Summary: Ruby finds herself trapped in Salem's domain, shadows chasing after her steps and enemies in every corner. Her only ally seems to be a monster himself, one that delights in violence and despair. (Ruby x Grimm!Oscar. Canon Divergence Post Season 3. Warning: DARK. Trigger warnings are included in each chapter.





	1. Oscar

**Author's Note:**

> Trigger Warnings: torture, character deaths, casual attitudes to death, blood, grimmification, brainwashing, body modification. Guys, we got Salem and Dark!Grimm!Oscar, dark shit is going to happen. If I've left any triggers out, please let me know in the comments.
> 
> Author warning: Yo, guys, we got canon divergence as well coming up. The origin stories of Blake, Adam and Oscar will be changed in this story. A few plot points will be changed as well. There is another figure integral to Oscar's origin story in Salem's domain but they'll be showing up in a later chapter for dramatic effect.

 

* * *

" _Protect your family," says the Father to the Son, "for the ties of flesh and bone are the strongest among the stars."_

* * *

Pain.

That is what he knows first. Pure, unadultered pain. The type of pain that fills the marrow of his bones with thorns, merges his blood with poison, pulls his skull apart, twists him in unimaginable angles and stabs at his brain like vultures picking a corpse apart.

Darkness becomes his home. A black space full of nothing. He drifts in shadows, not quite awake but not quite asleep either.

And then—

He breaks the surface of the water with a roar. He thrashes wildly, flailing in the black pool, until his hands find purchase with something rough. He clambers up, the sharp formation of rocks digging into his skin and drawing black. The air does nothing to help, so thick with humidity it's filling his lungs with fire. He presses his forehead against the rough ground, breathing harshly and clenching his fists. Claws press into the meat of his palm.

He's …  _angry_? Yes, he's angry. He woke up in a pool of who knows  _what_ , wet, and has no bearing on the situation.

"Oscar?"

He forces his head up to the voice. A pale woman with long flowing hair, white as the moon, and robes as black as the void he knows as home, looks down at him with blood red eyes. There's a flicker of  _something_  in her eyes, he can't make it out.

"Who are you?" His voice comes out as a sonorous growl, shuddering through the air.

The woman's lips pinch together. "Do you really not know who I am?"

He flicks his eyes over to the side, to the pool, its content more tar than liquid, where he must have crawled out of. He levels a glare at the woman.

"The woman who must have given me that oh-so- _lovely_  wake-up call?"

Hands upon hands, barbed with venom and with arms wisping with shadows, lift him like a ragdoll off the ground. They coil around his and slither into his mouth, filling his insides with burning poison.

"I am Salem," the woman announces, pressing a glare into him along with  _everything else_. "It appears I shall have to teach you respect since you appear to have forgotten it,  _Oscar_."

* * *

She is Salem. She is pain and hate and everything that lurks in the dark. She lives in a black castle where the sky is red, the ground is barren, a shattered moon lies in the sky and monsters drag themselves out of pools of black. Manners are foremost and she will be spoken to with  _respect_.

That is one lesson Oscar has trouble learning, tongue spitting out venom until Salem rips it out along with his legs and leaves him bleeding black on the cold floor.

"I must say," a girl in red and yellow with hair covering one eye muses, steps clacking imperiously on the stone, "that was highly entertaining."

Another girl, this time dark-skinned and mint-haired, trails behind her. A mouse, Oscar thinks, compared to the lion she cowered behind. "Cinder … We should leave."

"I wonder how long it will take for Salem to break you,"  _Cinder_ continues with all-too-smug smirk on her face. Something inside Oscar ripples with displeasure.

Oscar comes to know one thing then with absolute certainty. Oscar doesn't break. He does the breaking.

Tails manifest from the darkness he calls home, lunging hungrily at Cinder. He relishes the scream she makes when they pierce through her chest and feeds upon the pure  _agony_  that consumes her.

It is the mint-haired mouse who ruins the fun. When her bullets were meaningless and blood bled out of her eyes and nose from the futility of using her semblance on him, she ran to Mother Darkness and begged for her help. It is Salem's version of 'respect' that has him backing away from Cinder, tails reluctantly pulling from her body, as Salem appears in the corridor, utterly furious.

Oscar's legs haven't grown back yet so it's not like he can run and his control with his tails isn't as fine as he would like. His neck  _snaps_  when Salem drives a foot into the side of his face.

"That is our future Fall Maiden," Salem spits out. "She's more use alive than  _dead_  so I'd advise you to refrain from trying to kill her."

 _But her screams were delicious_ , Oscar wants to say. Salem quirks an eyebrow at the want in his eyes.

"Interesting," she says. And plunges her hand through his chest.

* * *

Salem patches grimm flesh into Cinder's body with threads of black. Salem also makes Oscar clean up all the gore and blood left in the corridor until nothing is left. She's a perfectionist like that. At one point, as Oscar wrings the blood from the stained cloth into a bucket in need of a water change, a bulky man in green walks in on him.

"What are you doing, kid?" he asks.

"Cleaning," Oscar says gruffly. "I made a mess."

The man sees him, sees the claws and the tails and glowing green eyes on black surrounded by black blood mixing with red, and promptly walks out.

On a happier note, at least Oscar's tongue is back.

* * *

Salem guides Oscar outside. Past the training grounds where deep scratches and burn marks are scored into the ground to the gardens. It's a reflection of Salem's need for pristine perfection. Un-bloomed rose bushes are lined up in rows, hedges trimmed to clean lines and the flower beds all neatly arranged to what Oscar thinks is Salem's liking.

It's beautiful. The workmanship is incredible. There's an odd  _itch_  in his hand. Does he want to touch? Or something else? What else could there possibly b—

Salem's hands rest on his shoulders, halting his thoughts. A woman works on the ground, tending to a bed, her back turned to them. This is one area of the garden not cultured to beauty like the rest of the grounds. It's still in development. Oscar isn't sure why but the raw earthiness of the scene puts him at ease despite the nails digging into his shoulders.

The woman stands. Her pale hair is long, tied into a loose plait behind her, and she wears only a ragged tank top and shorts with patches of brown on her pale skin, a stark contrast to Salem's fully covered and pristine form.

Oscar is caught by the red rose in full bloom where her right eye should be.

"Oscar," Salem whispers in his ear. "This is Summer, one of my assassins. She's going to teach you how to kill people. Now, go on. Say hi. And  _remember_  your  _manners_."

Salem pushes Oscar forwards, surging him into motion. He steps through the muddy earth until he comes to a stop in front of Summer.

"Hello, Miss Summer," Oscar says, holding his hand up.

Summer tilts her head to the side, scrutinising him with narrowed eyes. She nods curtly a second later, taking Oscar's hand and shaking it.

When she removes her hand from Oscar, she whips out a sword from her  _forearm_. Oscar barely has enough time to dodge from the blade that nearly severs his head from his body.

* * *

They have better conversations when they battle than they do when they actually talk.

Several slices to his left leg made by Summer's black blades that seem to say ' _You're too slow here'._

Oscar grits his teeth. His left leg dragged behind him whenever he moved. It's been like that since he's dragged himself out of that cold pit. Even after Salem cut off his legs and he grew them back, it's still there, holding him back.

Oscar pushes out, whipping his tails through the air.  _I know._

Summer easily dodges, much to Oscar's frustration.  _You're too slow over all._

When they're finished, Oscar lies on the ground, bleeding out. The moon hangs in the sky above, its fragments lying in discordant pieces near it. He wonders why it's broken.

"Because everything else is," Summer says, lifting his head gently from the ground and setting it on her soft lap. She gently wipes the hair from his face, the blood flaked on the strands.  _You need to be stronger,_ the gesture seems to say.

"You're too nice, Miss Summer," Oscar tells her.

Summer doesn't say anything in return. Oscar closes his eyes, trying to lose himself in the void as his body puts itself back together. It's Summer's hand gently brushing through his hair that stops him, anchoring him to the present.

* * *

He's hungry. So very, very hungry.

It started out as an odd pain. But then it grew. Nothing helped. Not the food Salem laid out for him at their weekly mandatory dinner. Not the snacks she kept hidden in the kitchen. Not the fruit that could only grow from her garden.

Nothing.

Salem cradles his hollowing cheeks. "What is wrong with you?" she hisses.

Oscar weakly groans.

Salem flings him to the floor, growling in frustration. "You could be a little bit more helpful," she mutters, rubbing two fingers to her temple. She sighs deeply. "Summer, take him to his room. Make sure his every want is attended to. I have to speak with Merlot. Perhaps he'll have something about Oscar's condition."

"Yes, milady," Summer answers dutifully, picking Oscar off the floor. Oscar hangs off of Summer with one hand looped around her neck. She keeps a steadying hand on his hip.

"I hate myself," Oscar moans once they're finally out of Salem's throne room.

A tightening of fingers around his hips. Oscar isn't sure how to decipher that. He hopes she hates him. He can't really imagine anybody liking him.

That's when he catches  _it_. A wave, absolutely intoxicating and pulling him in. Oscar turns his head in its direction. Despair, agony, loneliness, so much negativity and so thick he could  _taste_  it on his tongue. He makes a stilted movement towards it, only to be held back by the hand on his hip.

An inquisitive clench.  _Oscar?_

Oscar doesn't pay Summer much mind. He tries to push past the arm that holds him back, tries to follow that direction of sweet agony. "So … hungry …"

A moment of unreadable silence from Summer.

And then she lets him go.

* * *

Oscar finds the source curled up in a corner of a cell. The prisoner was  _pathetic_. Clothes ragged and crawling with small bugs, skin grimy, his hair matted and clinging in parts. His confinement quarters weren't much better, a measly window too high to reach and a chamber-pot in the corner overflowing with piss and shit. Oscar nearly wrinkles his nose in distaste at the stench hanging in the air.

"One of Lady Salem's prisoners?" Oscar rasps to Summer's quiet form, half melding with the shadows.

Summer nods. Her face doesn't say anything, as passive as a rock.

"Disposable?"

Another nod.

A wide grin stretches out on Oscar's face.

The prisoner comes to stand on his shaky knees, wild eyes fixed on him. Fear permeates through the air like freshly baked bread, mixed with a sprinkle of suspicion for extra flavour. "Who are you?"

Oscar shrugs, taking teasing steps inside the cell. "I don't know …" Oscar muses, tails creeping out of the shadows behind him, one by one. The man tries to melt into the cobbled wall, trying to disappear. "I know I'm a grimm. I crawled out of one of those pits."

The man makes a desperate dash for the door, left lying open. One of Oscar's tails lash out, going straight through the man's knees. Oscar smiles at the scream that echoes inside the cell, spilling into the corridor where Summer stands sentinel, her face still remote from emotion.

"My name is Oscar," he continues on, one of his tails coiling around the man's arms and  _pulling_. "Though I'm not sure how I got that name." Oscar makes a non-committal sound as flesh tears from bone, red spilling out onto stone. "Not quite sure what I'm doing here. As in, do I got a purpose or am I just nothing in the grand scheme of things. But—"

Oscar lifts the man off the ground, his hand twisting in time with the tail coiling suffocatingly around the man's neck. "I really like it when you scream."

Oscar digs his claws into the man's stomach and  _rips_.

* * *

"Crude," Salem denounces.

It's to Oscar's surprise that she doesn't spend all her time in those drab robes. She has her hair pulled in a ponytail, long, rectangular earrings hanging from her ears. She foregoes her dark robes for a loose blouse and slacks. Her bare feet, spidery with black veins, hovers above the mess.

Oscar dumps the man's body inside a burlap sack, tightening the end with rope. "Absolutely artless," Salem goes on.

Oscar puts his arms up in exasperation behind her. What was she expecting? He sets his frustration aside for cleaning up his mess.

Salem shakes her head, displeased. "No finesse whatsoever."

"Should I bury the body or burn it, Lady Salem?" Oscar asks, keeping his irritation out of his voice.

"Give it to Summer. Dead bodies make good fertiliser. Take care of that—" she points to the chamber pot in the corner with disdain "—as well."

"Yes, Lady Salem."

"You're feeling better now?"

"Yes." Oscar picks the body up with his tails and drops it outside the cell. "Still a little hungry though." He rubs a hand along his stomach. "I felt the same thing when I was dragging Cinder's guts out of her body. That sense of feeding. I don't think my grimm biology lets me sustain myself the same way you do."

"It appears it doesn't,," Salem says, striding on invisible steps to Oscar. She lifts his chin up with her finger, forcing him to look at her. They looked similar: white hair, blackened pupils, cracks on their skin. But whereas Salem's skin was pale, his was an olive, and his eyes glowed green instead of red. "It would appear you need others to suffer for sustenance. How does that make you feel?"

"Honestly, their despair is delicious," Oscar says honestly. "Have you ever tried?"

Salem quirks an eyebrow at him. "Eating people's despair, no. Torturing people, yes, and I had fun."

A smile tilts Oscar's lips up. He isn't sure how to describe what's between them now. If he had to guess, it's  _solidarity_ , that sense of not being alone, of sharing a common joy. Salem shares the same smile. A part of Oscar reminds him not to be fooled, that this woman wouldn't hesitate to kill Oscar, that she is still his lady.

"Tell you what, next week, I bring someone else and we both get what we want from them. What do you think, Oscar?"

Oscar considers this, the smile still on his mouth, and nods. "Sounds  _fun_."

Oddly enough, Salem ruffles his hair and leaves with a gaily air to her steps. "I want this cell suitably dirty for our next guest, Oscar!" she calls out as she leaves.

"Yes, Lady Salem!"

* * *

"You are not going to believe what just happened," Oscar says, dropping the 'fertiliser' at Summer's feet. "I just saw Salem  _happy._  Not snarky-happy. Not smug-happy.  _Happy_ -happy. It was so  _weird_."

Summer picks up the sack, throwing it over her shoulder. She gestures Oscar to follow her.  _Tell me more._

Salem shows him how to  _properly_  hurt people. The groundwork had already been in Oscar's mind. Make it  _hurt_. She refines that knowledge, sanding off the edges and guiding Oscar here and there and soon enough, he coaxes sonatas of pain and crescendos of agony from the unfortunate prisoners who find themselves in Salem's hold.

Oscar feeds well from them.

Training with Summer is a rocky road. He's thrown into multiple surfaces, his limbs are hacked from his body, several parts of him impaled with twisted black blades, bound by thorns biting into his flesh. Suffice to say, he loses more than he wins against Summer when they spar. Actually, he just loses against Summer. But slowly but surely, he reacts that second quicker, pushes back that much harder, dodges that much swiftly.

One night, Summer grabs him by the collar and is about to slam him on the ground when his feet land on the earth, stopping his fall. Spidery cracks bloom from the impact. He twists out of her grip, lashing out with a tail. Summer uses it as a launching pad, jumping out of radius from Oscar.

When Summer stands upright, black bleeds from a slight cut on her cheek. She gathers the blood on one finger, holding it before her for inspection. She levels Oscar with an amused look.  _Nice job_.

Oscar charges towards Summer, ready to strike.  _I try_.

* * *

The first time Oscar leaves Salem's castle, Summer takes him to a broken kingdom.

The capital of Mistral.

They wade through the overpopulated slums, rife with disease and poverty and the people growing strong despite it, climbing up the steps. The scenery steadily gets nicer, the streets easier to walk through and cleaner. It's not until the reach the top, where the people know nothing of dirt or having to hang your laundry on fences to dry or standing under corrugated roofs for shelter from the rain that Oscar realises the happiness of these people reap from the suffering of those living on the bottom.

Salem had given them a purpose when they travelled to Mistral.  _Turn the headmaster of Haven over to our side._ Oscar thinks it'd be more efficient for Salem if she had replaced the man with somebody staunchly on her side but, hey, he wasn't going to turn down a free meal and the chance to leave the castle.

They snatch Lionheart off the streets discreetly, the man walking out of a bar with the burn of alcohol on his cheeks, Oscar at first begging the man for help finding his parents and then sliding the syringe under his clothing. Summer comes quickly, she and Oscar appearing to be unfortunate friends picking up their drunk companion from the bar.

Lionheart comes to in one of Salem's safehouses, strapped to a chair by Summer's thorn vines. Oscar puts down the stolen book of fairy tales and saunters towards the frightened man.

"Hello, Mr Lionheart," Oscar says, not forgetting his manners. "Salem has a proposition for you and, I promise you, it's not one you refuse."

* * *

"I think I had a family," Summer says suddenly.

Lionheart was a job well done. Oscar had broken Lionheart's mind thoroughly enough that man wouldn't even think of ever saying no to Salem. it had taken a few days much to Oscar's surprise, the man had holding out longer than expected.

He and Summer sit on a rooftop, ice creams melting in hand, watching the top tier citizens of the capital run on with their eyes. Summer's eyes linger on an older woman holding a baby in one arm and the hand of a small child with golden hair with the other.

"Children, maybe …" Summer continues, dazed. "Sometimes, I can hear them, laughing. There are others. They're vague, like shadows."

"Miss Summer." Oscar's voice is ice. Hopefully, it's cold enough to snap Summer out of whatever stupor she found herself in. "We're grimm. We don't have families."

They don't. They don't. They  _don't._

"Ruby," Summer murmurs. When she turns to him, an inky black tear slips from her eyes. "Her name was  _Ruby_."

"Miss Summer …" Oscar groans, covering his face with his hand. "Stop it. Salem demands absolute loyalty and we're the poor bastards stuck in her command. She finds out about this, she's going to kill you."

"Are you going to tell her?"

Oscar should. There's an instinctual part of him that urges him that he should tell Salem. Summer was starting to become a variable out of control. Sooner or later, Summer was going to go rogue, and Oscar would pay for her betrayal. Salem was somebody he wasn't interested in crossing. Not now. Not  _ever._

"No."

Why? Why wouldn't he tell Salem when, clearly, he was better off doing so. When Summer draws Oscar close, wrapping loose arms around him, not caring at all for the ice cream staining their clothes, he figures out why.

'Thank you' the embrace says.

They're  _partners_.

* * *

"Salem just said she wants red roses," Summer says. Her arms are crossed as she stares out to the latest section of the expansive garden. White roses are in full bloom around them; statues of thorns, vines and hedge grass twisted ornately around the grounds; and lush greenery spanning out around them.

"Well, it'd be nice if she said something  _earlier_ ," Oscar snipes. "It'd be lovely we had the time."

"But we don't."

"Or the paint."

"But we don't."

"Wait, we still got prisoners down in the dungeons, right?"

"We do."

* * *

To their shared relief, Salem accepts the blood splattered roses with pleasant surprise. She takes her tea, silently ordering for Oscar to sit in the seat besides her. The conversations they have are like the sugar in the candy she gives him during those tea parties: artificial. Nothing more than idle words as a means to past the time, watching the red day pass into the black night.

Oscar casts his eyes up to the blazing sun and shattered moon for years as they revolved around the other. Salem's shadows grows, even in the light of day, beheading her foes and poisoning their minds. Soon enough, it's going to swallow the sun itself.

Oscar's going to miss the lushness of Summer's—well, theirs now—garden when it's gone.

"Branwen Tribe … Vernal …" Oscar murmurs, stepping away from the remains of what should have been a faunus behind him. He doesn't bother with burying the body, not when the creatures of the forest would take care of it for him, picking it apart until they was nothing left. He didn't have to worry about witnesses either, not when Summer lured the drunk bandit away with a sinful sway of her body and a come-hither look.

The search for the Spring Maiden was, if Oscar was to be honest, the most difficult information retrieval mission he ever had. All the other missions were linear—find the person, hurt them till they do what you say and be on your merry way. With the Spring Maiden, you went from Point A to point B then had to find Point C only to realise Point C was a waste of time and you really should have been bothering with Point D. A road full of twists, turns and smokescreens. Whoever the Spring Maiden was now, she had been doing her damndest not to be found.

Salem had put considerable time and effort into finding the maidens. She sent her pawns out on jobs and expected results. Everybody knew better than to come back without something to show.

Summer waits for him not too far away, one of her blades—thorns, she had once called them—in her hand. The time Oscar had spent interrogating the bandit, Summer had used it to go through her katas, body twisting and turning with dancer-like grace as her blade sung.

"We're looking for Vernal of the Branwen Tribe," Oscar announces.

Summer draws her blade down, head tilting to the side. Her eyes took that distant glaze which Oscar had become bitterly familiar with. She was lapsing into her delusions  _again_.

"A bandit-mercenary group," Oscar says sharply, hoping his tone would snap Summer out of her fantasies. "They have a camp set up with defences about four miles north of here. They have a considerable amount of people there as well. It should be easy enough for us to slip in and do a little recon."

"Branwen …"

Oscar groans. "Miss Summer, there is a rabbit. You are chasing it. Stop it. It's just going to lead you down a hole you can't get out of."

Summer says nothing in response, not by her words nor by her actions. She merely slides her blade back into her skin.

"Well, at least we have a name now. Vernal," Oscar continues, starting the walk to the camp. It should take a few hours on feet. With the position of the sun where it was, they probably wouldn't make it before sunrise.

"Something's bothering you," Summer points out, stepping over an overgrown tree root.

"Something seems off. This entire time we've looking for the Spring Maiden, we've followed false trail after false trail. It could be that this Vernal girl is another dead end."

The quirk of one of Summer's eyebrows tells him ' _You want to tell Salem that?'_.

"Of course not. I just don't want to go around running in circles again."

Summer pats his shoulder.  _We'll be alright._

Oscar can't bring himself to believe her. Not when they inevitably had Salem to give answers. "Hmmm … I wonder how the others are doing. Hey, maybe once we're done with this mission and get an actual signal on our scrolls, we can bother Watts for answers."

There's a slight  _fond_  glint on Summer's one eye at that. "Bothering Watts is always fun."

* * *

Vernal turns out to be a waste of time. Oscar stands close enough to sense an activated aura, one that reaches out hungrily for more, but the song of the elements Salem spoke of is silent in her veins and she didn't look at all familiar to the young girl in the faded photo Leonardo gave with a shaking hand.

"A smokescreen," Oscar remarks, whistling impressed. He stares down the end of a red blade, its gleam as bright as fire, and matching eyes. "I must say you really left no stone unturned. But then you told the wrong person about who the  _false_  Spring Maiden was and now here we are."

"Leave," the bandit queen and apparent Spring Maiden, Raven Branwen, hisses.

"I'm afraid my friend and I don't have the option of going back to Salem without something to show for our efforts," Oscar answers.

The bandits ring around them, weapons at the ready, and murder clear in the language of their bodies. They remind Oscar of beowolves baying for blood. Too bad they didn't know who were clearly the bigger predators here.

"Summer …" Raven murmurs.

"Hush," Oscar hisses sharply. Summer is out of his sight, a few steps behind him. He can tell she's off in her dream world again, the Raven woman aggravating her delusions by spouting off about a shared past. Which,  _typical_ , because Oscar needed Summer's agility, speed and combat expertise against Raven's maiden powers.

"You're both chained by Salem," Raven says, coolly. "The only difference between you two is that you  _don't_  want to leave and my partner  _does_."

 _My partner_ , the bandit queen says, as if the false bond was worth more than the blood spilt he and Summer spilled during training sessions and missions. The only sign of his irritation appears in the tightening of his fist, claws digging into his hardened palms.

Oscar refuses to raise to the bandit queen's bait, instead plastering an overly sugary sweet smile stretching from ear to ear on his face. "Miss Branwen, come quietly or me and  _my partner_  will have to resort to force."

When Raven answers, it's not to Oscar. "Summer, you are my greatest regret and my greatest love but I will  _not_  set myself on fire to keep you warm."

Oscar is going to take that as a solid ' _No_ ' then.

Oscar surges forwards, knocking through the first wave with a wide sweep of one tail and flicking the other above him, taking care of the bandits dropping through the air. The pointed end of his tail rips through their stomach, raining blood upon him.

Oscar sidesteps the slide of barbed ice ripping through the ground and the impending fireball after that. His tails sway to the side, Raven not missing the movement and sweeping her arm to the side, leaving herself  _wide open_. Oscar takes the dart laced with tranquiliser from his pocket, throwing it through the air—

Only for it to hit Summer's blade.

The shock is enough for Oscar to get distracted. The blade that rips through his chest nails him to ground. Oscar isn't sure if he's choking on his own blood or the betrayal. He watches as Summer stands from her defensive position and turns back to Raven with  _longing_. There's something wrong with Summer's stance. She hasn't over-exerted herself yet her knees are shaking and her breaths coming out in pained pants. It takes the bandit queen holding her up to keep Summer upright. Raven traces a hand under the rose in Summer's eye with a tenderness that should not be there.

Oscar lashes out, tails going through bandits. He pulls out by the blade, the sting of Summer's actions making it hurt all the more, and brandishes it.

"Miss Summer!" Oscar howls.

Summer doesn't acknowledge his anger. She heaves with every breath, standing weakly as a gentle smile curves on her lips. It's the first time Oscar has even seen her smile.

Raven shouts behind her, calling for a retreat. She gives Summer one last torn look before disappearing through with the false Spring Maiden trailing behind her. Oscar growls, tearing forwards.

Their blades clang, a scream ringing out through the camp. The bandits back away, fleeing the camp as two monsters rip their home apart. Summer meets him blow for blow with that expert grace Salem loved watching her for. The beauty of Summer's violence is marred by the slow sluggishness of her own body. Despite it all, she fights back, facing Oscar's wrath head-on. Oscar may have had the advantage but Summer was his teacher. She knew every one of his moves like they were pages on a book and played him as if he was a damn  _fiddle_.

When Oscar has one of Summer's discarded blades meeting her in an 'X', black swirling lines, barbed like thorns, creep out from the rose in her eye.

"Miss Summer …?"

Summer pushes, throwing Oscar from her. It steals the rest of her strength from her, her blade clattering to the ground. She drops to her knees, gasping and clutching the rose. The anger leaves. What's left in its place makes his heart beat faster than it ever had and his mind go blank from panic.

He doesn't know what to  _do._

Oscar takes one unsure step towards her, and another, and keeps moving until he's kneeling in front of her. Hands that have torn flesh and wrought pain carefully tilts her head up and sweep away the pale hair falling over her face.

Patches of Summer turns see-through, joining the thorns spreading all over her body. When Oscar grazes his hands over it, the smooth glide of glass is apparent. Oscar sighs, pressing his forehead against Summer's.

"There was a rabbit …" Oscar murmurs, slowly lifting his head up. "And you chased it. Godsdammit, Summer, I told you not to. What's happening now … it's Salem, isn't it?

Summer merely weakly smiles, resting her head on the hand Oscar curves around her cheek. The glass spreads, petrifying more of Summer's body until she's unable to stand up. "Os—Oscar," she chokes out. "Please … Protect my family."

 _You don't have a family_ , Oscar bitterly thinks.

"I …"

Summer never finishes that sentence. Her throat turns to stone. Her eyes says it for her in their place.  _I love you_.

Flesh turns to glass, like day fades into night, and all that left in Oscar's hands is a statue. The thorns take hold, squeezing and choking, until the glass shatters. It scatters everywhere, dusting Oscar's hair, fragments embedding into his skin and spreading across the ground in front of him.

The gasps that escape him are broken. "Su—Summer?"

It's only the whistle of the wind that answers him.

* * *

Salem takes a measured sip from her teacup. The porcelain is perfect, green swirling across white. Oscar wonders how hard he would have to press for it to break in his hands. His own tea has turned cold, untouched and unwanted. His hands rest in his lap, utterly still.

The roses are still in bloom around them. Even if Oscar and Summer hadn't tended to the gardens for months, they made sure that the soil had enough nutrients and water to survive. His eyes trail to the irrigation system, almost out of sight, that he and Summer spent three months planning and building to water the grounds in their absence.

They didn't want the plants to die.

But Summer died.

"So Raven Branwen is the Spring Maiden," Salem says after Oscar has finished his brief.

"Yes."

"And she's gone now."

"Yes," Oscar answers. "As I said before, Summer lapsed into a delusion and stopped me from continuing the mission. I apologise for my failure, Miss Salem."

"What failure? I said to find the Spring Maiden and you did. Obtaining her was never the objective." The relieved exhale Oscar gives is slight, through his nose and completely out of Salem's notice. At least she wouldn't punish Oscar.

"I hadn't counted Summer Rose on remembering her memories though," Salem continues. "Oh, well, this is what I had the flower in her eye for. A failsafe to be activated the moment Summer got out of hand. I chose a rose to be poetic, you know. Rose was her family name, and she considered Raven Branwen to be her family, who was her undoing."

"Miss Salem?" Oscar calls out, unsurely.

Salem gives Oscar a smile. It's not fond like Summer's. It's cold and does the equivalent of pouring a bucket of ice-cold water of his head. "Oscar, Summer Rose was never deluded." She stands and crosses over to Oscar, robes trailing fluidly behind her. Oscar doesn't move, not even when Salem places a hand on his shoulder. "Good job, Oscar."

Oscar comes to his feet, numbly, once Salem leaves. He feels faint, the world swaying slightly around him. The roses come into his view, white petals splattered with red. Something breaks inside him, leaving him screaming.

Oscar's tails lashes out, slashing and uprooting the bushes. He screams so hard his throat strains from the force.

The scattered rose petals on the upturned earth reminds Oscar of shattered glass …


	2. Descent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby finds herself falling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings: torture, non-consensual body modification, body horror, inappropriate contact and staring, mentions of rape
> 
> Note: If you're expecting sweet Oscar looking after Ruby, not gonna happen. If you read the last chapter, you know he's problematic. It's takes more than an honest soul to survive Salem's domain. This was written pre the V6 finale.

 

* * *

Ruby's falling.

Ruby has no idea how long she's been falling.

She knows how it started. Racing up on swirling glyphs holding her to the side of the headmaster's tower, only to reach the top and see her friend drop to the ground. Ruby swore she felt that same hot, burning spear in Pyrrha's torso pierce her own heart before everything turned white hot. It consumed everything until there was nothing but darkness left, sending Ruby plummeting.

The more she falls, the colder it gets and the darker it becomes. The air screams as it passes her ears.

Snatches of memories, some worn with age and others sparkling new, flash before her eyes.

Her father's trembling frame bent over on the couch, the cloudy sky outside casting him in a depressing shade over him …

The summer-tinted image of a butterfly landing on a red rose in full bloom …

Working on a Crescent Rose prototype in a Signal shop room reeking of copper and oil with Uncle Qrow …

Seeing the vivid blue of Weiss' eyes in the Emerald Forest.

The memories appear in infrequent snatches as Ruby falls deeper into the void.

Another glimpse of the past catches Ruby and she's looking out to a woman in a white cloak, the fabric billowing out behind her. The door is open in front of her, the night as black as the void Ruby's falling through. It almost seems to be waiting to devour the woman once she crosses the threshold.

The woman stops when she notices Ruby standing behind her. The woman turns, her rosy red lips curving up in a fond smile. Ruby's throat thickens at the sight, heart clenching painfully in her chest.

Ruby immediately understands the bemusement in the woman's eyes.  _What are you doing up this late?_

"…Couldn't sleep," Ruby mumbles. "Where you going?"

"A dear friend of mine needs some help," the woman explains. "Seems I'll be gone with your Uncle Qrow for quite some time."

"You'll come back for my birthday?"

The woman holds up her hand, her tiniest finger sticking up from her closed fist. "Pinky promise." Ruby laces her pinky around the woman's, enjoying the shared warmth between them against the chill coming in through the open door. The woman presses her forehead against Ruby's, sighing deeply. "I love you, rosebud."

"I love you too, Mom," Ruby says to her retreating figure.

The fabric of her mother's snow-white cloak unravels, scattering into petals. They wash over Ruby, gently grazing her form with soft, velvet kisses. The interior of the foyer fades, eaten away by the shadows, and once again Ruby is falling.

Ruby's tears drift upwards into the void, a stark contrast to her quickening descent. Ruby's hair whips wildly, the air now wailing in sync with her grief. All the while it got colder, to the point the chill was like knives piercing into her chest.

Where was she? Where was everybody else?

Ruby reaches out only to grasp nothing. Nobody. Nobody was there. She was all alone. Before, when she was naive enough, Ruby thought she could live all by herself. Now all she wanted to be standing at Beacon, Weiss at her side, scolding her for her bedhead, Yang always watching her back, tempering Weiss' icy attitude, and Blake two steps ahead, nose in a book.

Ruby hits the ground. The sun greets her, the light scorching her. Ruby quickly notices that the light is too sterile to be the sun's unforgiving rays. It's a lightbulb casting its pale shine on her. Ruby winces, turning away from the burning intensity.

But only partly as Ruby soon comes to realise. Her back rests on something cold and smooth and she can't move her hands or legs. Her wrists and ankles clamped down. A spike of panic rushes through her, tightening her chest. Her heart beats a quick hummingbird tune.

The anxiety is mingled with searing pain, blooming from her eye. Ruby winces, squeezing her eyes shut. It hurts. It's almost as if something was trying to claw its way out of her.

"You're finally awake," A voice says.

The overhead lamp is the only source of light in the room. A shiver runs through her at the table beside her, stainless steel surgical instruments on top of it wet with blood. Beyond that, Ruby can see white tiles, the vague silhouettes of cabinets, lightboxes displaying X-rays and medical equipment.

An operating room?

Ruby draws her eyes to the source of clacking heels against tiles. A stilted gasp quickly leaves her. The woman's skin was sickly white, her hair much the same deal. Scarlet irises seemed to glow ominously on pools of black, darkened spidery veins cracking around her cheeks. Her flowing robes almost to meld with the shadows behind her.

"You're so young," the woman drawls, "and you've signed up for a war you had no idea you were fighting. Although, it's not hard to be led astray at your age."

"W—" Ruby's voice wobbles. She swallows, dry tongue thick in her mouth. "What's happening?"

The woman smiles, a cruel turn of her lips. "What's the last thing you remember?"

"I—" A school in ruins. Reaching the top of the tower. Pyrrha on her knees, Cinder standing triumphant above her. Falling. The woman's smile grows at the pain flickering through Ruby.

Ruby jerks to move, only to be held back by the restraints. She looks down, seeing the metal clamps, looking so impossibly thick and sturdy that it deflated any hope of running. Her usual dress was gone, replaced by a flimsy cover that Blake's disposable masks were made out of held by bits of string. The chill in the room sends shivers up Ruby's spine, doing absolutely nothing to calm her frantically rising nerves.

The woman enjoys Ruby's scrambling, the girl pulling at unyielding restraints and the panicked breaths that leave her.

"Who are you?" Ruby hisses.

"Just this once I will excuse your tone, young lady, but I will be spoken to with respect," the woman says, archly. "Simply put, I am Salem. I'm the reason you are here. I'm the reason your precious school  _burned_. I'm the reason there are bodies piled on the steps of Beacon."

"You … " Ruby gasps. The image of Penny lying in pieces in the arena and scattered embers drifting in the wind flashes in her mind. White hot anger replaces the fear. Ruby bares her teeth against the woman. Ruby screams, trying to rise from the table.

And to it all, the woman—Salem—makes a mockery out of Ruby's anger, blistering and hot, merely folding her arms and watching the girl rage with a raised eyebrow. Ruby was nothing more than some kind of insect Salem is spying through a magnifying glass. And it chills Ruby that might be what she is to this woman, strapped down and almost naked.

"Hmm, now you've had your tantrum, Silver Eyed Warrior—"  _what?_  "—, I've run out of entertainment of you. Of course, there's always this."

Salem flicks her wrist. That's all it takes for Ruby arch off the table, pure pain coursing through her being. Ruby screams, and screams, and screams. She isn't sure her throat is raw from her cries or if it's the millions of phantom knives twisting inside her. It stops suddenly, leaving Ruby to slump on the table, tears stinging at her eyes.

Ruby can only pull in shuddering gasps, her gaze drifting hazily around the room.

"That's always fun." Salem's voice sounds muted, as if Ruby's been plunged underwater. And she probably has, a poisonous liquid inside her lungs thickening, the ability to breathe becoming lost to Ruby. "I could make one of those videos and spread it around, show what happens when you cross me. Seems more effective than putting a corpse on display."

The world blurs around her, shadows and shapes blending into the other. Salem seems to change, smile widening from ear to ear, pale skin standing out from the darkness. Ruby can only gasp and writhe, her sight gradually leaving her until …

she …

floats …

"Death is not that kind, I'm afraid," Salem says, pulling Ruby back to reality. Her head hovers over Ruby's, stray white strands falling around her.

Ruby doesn't want this. Ruby doesn't want this. Where's Yang? Dad? Uncle Qrow? Please—

"Death is never kind."

Salem tightens her hand into a fist.

Ruby screams.

* * *

A hand touches her, a mere graze of her cheek. Ruby jolts awake, crying. The big lamp isn't blaring down on her, turned off in favour of lighting the overhead lights. Everything's hazy for a second until her surroundings focuses into clarity.

A boy stands at the side of the table, bearing the same white hair and blackened veins as Salem. Ruby sees stark differences immediately, eyes glowing green instead of red, skin olive instead of pale, and so drastically young he may as well be Ruby's age.

"You …" the boy says. "A silver eye. She had red."

Ruby frowns in confusion. Her gaze drift to the side. The boy's hand hovers near the side of her head, steady and still, sleek gloves covering the skin. Ruby shivers. All Salem had to do was close her fist …

"Are you going to hurt me?"

The boy maintains his unnervingly neutral expression. The boy narrows his eyes, lips turning in disdain. Then his hands snaps to the clamps, pressing a button. The first clamp gives way, letting Ruby's arm free. The boy does the same thing with the rest of the clamps. The boy doesn't help Ruby up, instead coolly striding over to the door and waiting for her there.

Ruby struggles to sit up, the pain in her eye spiking unpleasantly, making her gasp. Ruby brings her hand up, feeling a velvety softness where her eye should be running under her fingers like the flipping pages of a book.

_What …?_

"W—What happened to me? My—My  _eye_. It doesn't feel right."

"What happens to all those that needs a closer watch." The boy walks back to her, grabbing a nearby handheld mirror off a table and holding it up. "Salem makes sure we don't disobey her."

A rose. A  _rose_  is  _there_ , where her right eye should be, red and radiant and—what happened? What happened? Where's her eye?  _Where_? Her hand pushes against the flower, its smooth texture all too apparent under her palm.

"I wouldn't recommend doing anything to displease Lady Salem," the boy says. "Otherwise, you'll turn to glass and shatter."

" _Are you serious?!"_  Ruby hisses frantically.

The boy doesn't seem all too affected by the fact that Ruby was strapped down to a table half-naked or that Ruby's eye was taken against her will. There's a beat of silence until he finally speaks, in a much softer tone, "It's what happened last time."

The boy snaps the mirror back to the table he picked it up from, a clattering sound resounding in the sterile room. "If you want to survive, then I suggest adapting as fast as you can."

"But I have to leave," Ruby argues. "I have a family. A team. They need me."  _I need them._

The boy's eyes sharpen. "In Salem's domain, concepts like family don't matter anymore. Now"—the boy crosses his arms—"are we leaving? Or do you want to stay here?"

Ruby gapes at the boy. Does he really not see how messed up this all is?

"You have to move," the boy hisses, "if you want to survive Salem's domain, Miss Rose."

Nowhere to go. Just forwards.

Ruby gingerly lets herself down but her knees shake and her legs feel like jelly when her feet touches the cold tiles. She uses the operating table to support herself, inching towards the boy. It's gruelling work when you combine the aftermath of Salem's torture, the throbbing pain in her eye—rose—whatever it is—and the numbness of her legs. Every step is a mile for her.

Ruby takes a deep breath when it becomes apparent when she has to leave the support of the table. Nothing is nearby for her to reach out, at least not without a few steps. It certainly doesn't appear as though the boy is willing to help her, who stands by the door, unswayed by her beseeching face.

Ruby manages to make it two steps before her shaking knees give out beneath her. The way her head knocks into the tiles, somewhat cushioned by her arms, fills her with a dizzying nausea. Ruby groans, lying on the ground in a great useless heap. Tears sting at her eyes, frustration and fear fuelling them.

A heavy sigh. "We're going to be here all day."

Ruby lets out a strangled cry when a hand curves around her shoulders and forces her onto her back.  _No! NO! Please don't hurt me!_  The words don't come out though, replaced instead by panicked whimpers. The boy, kneeling besides her, does nothing to assuage her panic, sliding a hand under her back and bringing her upright.

The only reaction he has is when Ruby shoves her hands into the boy's face. It's laughable. At her normal strength, she'd be able to push him away. Drained of her energy and aura, it's nothing more than a limp slap.

"Relax," the boy says, voice hard. "I'm not going to hurt you."

Ruby doesn't believe him, trembling as she stares at him. The boy pushes on, taking off his blazer and draping it around her shoulders. It offered her upper body some comfort from the cold. Her legs still shivered, though. He picks her up with ease, heading over to the door. Ruby has to link her arms around the boy's neck to falling when he carries her by only the knees, the boy opening the door.

Ruby keeps quiet, resting her head on the crook of his shoulder. The temperature didn't change leaving the room, still chillingly cold. It was only the warmth of the boy and the cover of his jacket that carried her through it. Light from the flickering flames of the burning wax candles illuminated their way through the dark corridor.

They climbed a spiralling staircase upwards to another corridor, this time with a long carpet sprawling under the boy's feet and arching windows. The blood red sky bearing the shattered moon, illuminating the barren plains and the ominously glowing crystal tearing out of the ground has Ruby gasping. It was nothing like the dreamy blue and the warm sun bearing down on Patch or the picturesque skyline of Beacon. This was something else entirely …

"Wh—Where are we?" Ruby's voice sounds disgustingly dry, the parched quality of her throat catching up to her.

"Salem's domain. In the Land of Darkness."

"But that's just a fairy tale. A—A bedtime story parents tell their kids to keep them from being naughty."

"They do? Huh. Then we must have done something spectacularly bad to end up here."

Is that a joke? Ruby doesn't know. The boy was so flippant to the world around them she had no idea of knowing. Ruby curls in closer to the stranger holding her, if only for the pseudo sense of comfort. She's so tired that she wants to curl up in the safety of  _her_ bed, spoiled by Yang's adoration, scolded by Weiss' tough love and comforted by Blake's quiet assurance.

They continue the rest of the walk in silence. There's an odd distribution of weight in how the boy walks. One leg takes more weight than the other. The other leg drags behind slightly with each step, rocking Ruby in an awkward motion.

Ruby numbly takes in the passing hallways, decorated by morbid paintings and statues in a futile bid to liven up the dying atmosphere of the castle.  _Left, right, up the staircase …_ Even though Ruby notes the change in direction, she can't be bothered to memorise them, as the pain and exhaustion settle in.

Ruby sees hide nor hair of anybody else. It's just them, the halls that seem too eerily empty and the sounds of their steps on the tiles. When they finally enter a room, Ruby notes an ever-so-slightly fresh change in the air.

For one, she sees potted plants, green with life, scattered on tables, stands and on the ground. As the boy takes her up another spiralling staircase, she sees vines crawling up the side of a bookshelf and terrariums sitting on the sills of windows. Books, in what could be the hundreds, are shelves along the staircase, mixing the scent of paper pages with the freshness of soil. It was a tight space but it wasn't claustrophobic. It feels inexplicably cosy, a stark contrast to the dreary castle they wondered through.

Another door opens and then the library changes into a bathroom. The boy props her on a sink bench, hands to coming up to the fabric of the sheath covering her body. Ruby tries to bat his hands away, only for the boy to grab her wrists, holding them above her head. Ruby kicks him, foot connecting to his middle. However, drained of strength and unable to summon her aura, it has much the same effect as hitting the boy back in the operating room: Nothing.

Something coils around her leg, forcing it away. It's long and dark, dark green and yellow reflecting off it in fractures. Another of those  _things_  replaced the grip on her wrists and as one more holds down her other leg to keep her from kicking.  _They're coming from him_ , Ruby realises, following the curve of the— _tails? Tentacles? Lashers?_

His hands reach out, grasping the fabric of the flimsy sheath. After what Salem did, Ruby thought her throat hurt too much to scream. It wasn't the case, the boy ripping the only thing covering her.

Ruby trembles, utterly exposed to this boy who was capable for doing anything to her. She watches him in fear, mouth trembling and tears stinging at her eyes. The boy is unperturbed by her frantic mood, taking her naked form in stride. Ruby squirms, fruitlessly trying to cover herself from the boy's unwelcome gaze, gasps and whimpers leaving her, tears freely leaving her.

Is he going to—?

Without much further ado, the coils pick Ruby up and drop her into water. The water is chillingly cold. Ruby scrambles to sit up, clinging to the ring of the tub. Water is poured unceremoniously over her head.

"What are you doing?" Ruby asks frantically, trying to wiggle away.

"I'm washing you," the boy replies coolly, ladle in hand, as if she were being obtuse. The boy continues his business, pouring more water over her.

There's no gentility in the boy's handling of her, hands roughly spreading the shampoo through her scalp. Her pleas for him to  _stop_  touching her fall on deaf ears. Other than ripping off the only thing covering her and washing her, he does nothing untowards. It doesn't stop her trying to escape, though.

"Would you stop squirming?" The boy grits once Ruby's out of the tub, trying to towel her dry. The coils come out once more, wrapping around her ankles and wrists, keeping her in place.

"How do you have this much energy after being tortured by Salem?"

A shiver runs through Ruby, making her freeze. The boy doesn't seem too fazed by  _why_  she did this, merely taking advantage of her still body to throw her over his shoulder and carry her further up the tower. Her fear spikes up once again when the boy throws her roughly onto a bed.

Ruby whimpers, quickly covering herself with the blanket and retreating against the headboard. She watches the boy, who hisses in annoyance at the wet spots on his clothing. She could run on her weak legs down the tower. The boy could quickly and easily catch up to her, though. Even then, the castle was unfamiliar terrain to her and she didn't want to chance running into Salem again.

"What are you going to do to me?" Ruby asks.

The boy has his back to her, standing in front of a wardrobe. He pulls out a shirt, carefully examining its length and flicking his inhuman eyes back to her. "Dress you. Can't really have you walking around naked." His gaze went back to the shirt. "No, this won't fit. You're too big …"

"That's all?"

"Truth be told, I'm making this up as I go. I don't really have a plan for you."

"So you're not …?" Ruby trails off.

"I'm not what?" The boy scrutinises her wary form on the bed, eyes narrowing. Realisation strikes his face then. "Do you think I'm going to rape you?"

Ruby flinches, pulling the blanket higher over her chest.

The boy stares at her blankly for a moment until a look of complete disgust crosses his face. "Really?"

"You ripped my clothes  _off_."

"To bathe you," the boy explains. "You were dirty. That thing was really just a scrap of fabric. Although, looking back on my behaviour now … I can't fault you for thinking that. I have more power than you in this situation."

Ruby's grip tightens on the blanket. "And what situation is this?"

"You're my new pet," the boy answers simply, striding to the bed. He holds the loose shirt to Ruby's shoulder. "Looks like this will do." His hand goes to the blanket covering Ruby however it hovers before it can make contact. "Can you dress yourself?"

"Y—Yeah," Ruby says unsurely, taking the shirt. His pet?

The boy turns away, heading back to the wardrobe, probably in pursuit of more clothes she could wear. The boy doesn't look back once, completely focused on rummaging through the wardrobe. The shirt is an off shade of black, loose strings holding the parting 'V' together and something a farmer would wear but it fits, even if it's a little tight around her chest.

"Hmmm … Your waist is wider than mine. Think these will work?" The boy holds up boxers in his hand.

Ruby shrugs, unsure.

"Might as well try." The boy drops the boxers on the bed. The boy leaves after that, disappearing down the stairs. Ruby is quick to slip the boxers on, though the sluggishness of her legs impedes the speed of the process. The boxers squeeze uncomfortably around her waist and strain around her thighs.

When he returns, he carries a tray bearing a jug and cookies on the surface. Ruby's throat burns at the sight, joining the uncomfortable lurch of her stomach. He sets the tray on the bedside table, pouring a glass of water for her from the jug. Ruby silently accepts the glass offered. However, her grip is shaky, the water threatening to spill out until the boy steadies her grip, fingers closing around hers and guiding the cup to her lips.

Ruby eagerly drains the contents, the boy acquiescing to her obvious thirst and pouring more water for her. The boy regards her carefully once Ruby is satisfied, deep in thought. What he's thinking Ruby has no idea. Frankly, she's a little scared of knowing.

"What are you going to do to me?" Ruby pushes herself to ask.

The boy considers think. "Hmmm … Might be nice if I had somebody to talk at." Not  _with_ , Ruby notes. "The company here isn't exactly the best for conversation. I'm not sure. I'm really just making this up as I go."

"Who are you anyway?" Ruby asks cautiously.

"I'm Oscar," he says. "I work for Salem." A pause. "I'm a grimm."

"Wha …? But—" Ruby opens her mouth to argue. It was impossible. But then the boy's appearance strikes her. His pale hair, his unnatural eyes, the veins that resembled shattered glass, his …  _tails_  from before. It should be impossible to have a living rose implanted where your eye should be. It should be impossible to be in the Land of Darkness.

"You seem to have trouble taking in all of this. Get some sleep," Oscar orders her, standing from the bed. When he sees Ruby's wary expression, he sighs. "Relax. The door on the bottom floor is locked and I'm not going to do anything. You know what?"

Oscar bends over at the bedside drawer, pulling something out of one of the drawers. He removes the cloth covering it, revealing a black dagger, curved and serrated, the slightest glint of red running along its blade. Oscar throws the knife in the air, catching the sharp end deftly with his fingers and presenting the handle to Ruby.

"Here," Oscar says. "Take it. For your own protection. I won't be around all the time." Ruby does, unsurely. Oscar takes his leave then, pausing at the threshold of the staircase. "I'll be around if you need me, Miss Rose."

The boy disappears down the stairs, his shock of white hair the last thing Ruby sees. The energy thrumming through Ruby leaves, the girl slumping on the bed. The tremors start to overtake her, her body rattling on the bed. The knife stays close, lying right next to her.

Pyrrha … Penny … They were dead. And she had no idea who else was. And Ruby was stuck here, in an unfamiliar land, no friends and no family to back her up, completely useless.

Once the tears started coming to her eyes, they didn't stop.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a kudo or review!

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a kudo or comment!


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